The Panosaurus Panoramic Tripod Head
The Panosaurus

Panosaurus from Red Door VR Ltd. UK:

The Panosaurus Panoramic Tripod Head.

Product: PANOSAURUS SPHERICAL PANORAMIC TRIPOD HEAD
Product Code: Panosaurus


Panosaurus £94.95 (£111.57 inc UK VAT)

'The Affordable Fully Spherical Panoramic Tripod Head'
The Panosaurus was designed for almost all point and shoot compact and digital SLR cameras on the market today (with a combined camera and lens combination weight of NOT MORE THAN 1.5 KILOS [approx. 3.5 Lbs]).
The design represents two years of evolution to address almost all the compatibility and ease of use issues users want.
It may not be the prettiest kid on the block - but it can hold its own with the big guys on features.

* NOTE - The Panosaurus is supplied from the manfacturers packed flat - some assembly is required.


Camera Compatibility - will your camera work with the Panosaurus? - click here for guide
Spares: Lost your Panosaurus Bubble? Product: Panosaurus Bubble Level only
Product Code: PSR BUBB

Panosaurus Spare Bubble Level. £11.99 (£14.04 inc UK VAT)
click any of the thumbnail images below for a larger view of the Panosaurus.
The Panosaurus Panoramic Tripod Head.
The Panosaurus head is constructed of 3/4" and 1/2" Expanded PVC plastic. This material is lightweight and yet very strong and durable. The rotator arm has been reinforced with aluminum strips. The upright metal arm is made of 3/16" inflexible aluminum. Total weight of the Panosaurus is under 2 lbs (.9 kilograms). Cameras mount in the portrait position either in the lens centreline hole of your DSLR style camera or the vertical slot (for cameras that have a tripod mounting hole off-centre from the lens). The ruled lines on the upper horizontal arm make it easy to remember where your camera needs to be mounted on the head once you find the optical centre ['nodal point'] of your lens.
The Panosaurus Panoramic Tripod Head.

The picture on the left shows the Panosaurus from the back side. The upright horizontal arm is able to rotate on the vertical axis 360 degrees by simply loosening the clamping knob in the upright metal arm. This enables you to shoot multi-row panoramic shots while maintaining the optical centre point of your lens. So the Panosaurus is a fully spherical panoramic tripod head. The upright metal arm is attached to the rotator arm with a clamping knob underneath - for easy assembly and disassembly.

You can of course also use the Panosaurus as a 'Single-Row' panorama head to produce 'Cylindrical' style panoramas, or even partial panoramas for landscapes etc.
The Panosaurus Panoramic Tripod Head.

This picture shows the upright metal arm removed from the rotator arm. The turntable is laid out in 5 degree increments and is marked with numbers every 10 degrees. A high quality bubble level is located directly under the optical centre of the camera lens. The picture shows the removal of the bubble level - which is held in place by a magnet. The head rotates under adjustable tension around a bronze bushing inserted into the plastic below the bubble level. You can adjust the tension to suit your needs. The Panosaurus does not have "Click Stops" to interfere with shooting preferences.

You can ensure the head is level by using a Levelling unit, which fits between the Panosaurus and your tripod. Quickly adjusting the legs on the levelling unit allows 5 degrees of adjustment up and down to centre the bubble level.
The Panosaurus Panoramic Tripod Head.

This picture shows the Panosaurus set up in the landscape position. The Panosaurus is not really designed to "shoot" in the landscape position (although you can) The camera slides freely on the horizontal arm. The landscape position makes it MUCH easier to more accurately locate the optical centre of your camera's lenses before switching to the portrait position to shoot. This feature is unique to the Panosaurus. The ruled lines at the front of the horizontal arm make it easy to position your camera lens on the lens centreline after mounting to the camera mounting pad - particularly if your camera's tripod hole is not inline with the lens.
The Panosaurus Panoramic Tripod Head.

The Panosaurus was designed for almost all point and shoot compact and digital SLR cameras on the market today*. The design represents two years of evolution to address almost all the compatibility and ease of use issues users want. It may not be the prettiest kid on the block - but it can hold its own with the big guys on features.

*Note the Panosaurus is NOT recommended for use with a Camera/Lens combined weight of more than 1.5 Kilos.
The Panosaurus Panoramic Tripod Head.

The Panosaurus head will mount to any tripod that has a standard 1/4"-20 thread bolt on its top (the same size bolt that would mount to a camera). Although amost any tripod will work fine with the Panosaurus, we recommend the use of a 'Levelling Unit' fitted between the Panosaurus and the tripod. Using a leveller will enable you to level the Panosaurus in just a few seconds. Some Pro type tripods have a 3/8" bolt on their tops. You would an adaptor to mount the Panosaurus directly to such a tripod in this case.

Camera Compatibility - will your camera work with the Panosaurus?
To know if your camera will work properly with the Panosaurus you will need to know THREE things: Camera mounting hole position, Camera weight, length of lens

1. The placement of the mounting hole on your camera.

The picture above shows a standard Digital SLR.
The Panosaurus is designed to work with cameras which have a mounting hole that is "IN LINE" (shown a 'A' above) with the lens centreline.


The picture above shows the location of a tripod hole on a small digital camera. The Panosaurus will work with any camera that has a tripod hole offset to the LEFT (shown a 'C' above) - as long as the tripod hole is not so close to the edge of the camera that it may tip the camera up when mounted to the rubber mount of the Panosaurus.


The Panosaurus WILL NOT WORK (without modification) with any camera with a tripod hole located to the right of the lens (when viewed from underneath the camera - see picture above).

2. The weight of your camera and lens.

The Panosaurus is NOT recommended for any camera and lens combination weighing more than 3.2 lbs or 1.4kg.

3. An estimate of the distance from the centre of your tripod hole to the optical centre of your lens.


When using a Digital SLR camera with a long lens the absolute maximum length from the tripod mounting hole of the camera to the optical centre of the lens must be no more than 180mm or about 7 inches.

If the tripod hole of your camera is offset from the centreline of the lens then the maximum distance from the tripod mounting hole to the optical centre of the lens must be no more than 160mm or about 6.5 inches.

A rough estimate of the optical centre of a fixed focal length lens is usually somewhere close to the physical centre of the lens. If you look into the front of a lens and locate the pinhole opening, this is where the optical centre will lie for most fixed focal length lenses.

Important!!!

Cameras or lenses that have been found to NOT work with the Panosaurus for various unusual reasons:

Canon 1D and 1Ds, Fugifilm S3 Pro, Nikon D3 and D3X (These cameras are too large and heavy)

Nikon 950 camera (Tripod hole too close to front of camera. This causes the camera to tip up when mounted to a rubber or cork pad)

Canon S400, S230 camera (Tripod hole on wrong side of lens & too close to the edge of the camera)

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SAMPLE IMAGES AND PANORAMAS PRODUCED BY RED DOOR WITH THE PANOSAURUS VR HEAD:
The image alongside is a sample of a 'Multi-Row' Spherical Panorama produced by Red Door with the PANOSAURUS - click here to view a QuickTime VR Movie of this panorama. [opens a new 'pop-up' window]
The image alongside is a sample of a 'Single Row' Cyclindrical Panorama produced by Red Door with the PANOSAURUS - click here to view a QuickTime VR Movie of this panorama. [opens a new 'pop-up' window]
If you require more information, and a fully comprehensive set-up guide for the Panosaurus you can download a PDF guide here.

Panosaurus: Frequently Asked Questions:

(also see the full PDF guide for in-depth details)

Q 1. Why won't the Panosaurus work for cameras with tripod mounting holes on the "wrong" side of the lens?
Q 2. How accurate is the Panosaurus? Most heads cost hundreds of pounds?.
Q 3. Why are the other panoramic tripod heads on the market so expensive?
Q 4. Will this head work with fish eye lenses?
Q 5. Can I use a camera and lens combination that weighs more than 3.5lbs?

A 1. With this design if you try to mount a camera with the tripod mount hole on the "wrong" side of the lens to the camera mounting pad it will not be able to slide down far enough to let the lens be over the point of rotation on the upright arm so you would lose the ability to take multi-row panoramas.

A 2. To create an inexpensive head compromises had to be made. However the compromises that were made in the design of the Panosaurus will not effect your ability to take extremely accurate panoramic pictures. There are not features such as "Stops" on the turntable to force you to only rotate a precise distance between shots. The ability to move the camera forward or backward small fractions of a millimeter is beyond the ability of this head since the mounting of the camera is done by sight. However, the accuracy that was needed in the past, before panoramas were created digitally is not as applicable today with the advent of computer software to stitch the pictures together. The most important aspect of creating good panoramic pictures, using this or any panoramic tripod head, is taking the time to find the optical centre of the lens as accurately as possible.


A 3. The greatest contributor to the high cost of the other heads on the market is the material used to make them - aluminum and stainless steel. Also, some of the designs were created many years ago before lightweight compact digital cameras came on the scene. Older cameras were much heavier and required a much heavier head to support them. Most of the Panosaurus is made of the same material as PVC pipe. It is an extremely durable strong yet inexpensive material that does not cost a lot to machine.

A 4. The best way to use the Panosaurus with a fisheye lens is by using an optional Landscape Tower Attachment. This will allow you to shoot in landscape mode (rather than portrait mode which will keep you from seeing the upper part of the Panosaurus in your images.

A 5. The Panosaurus is not recommended for a camera and lens combination that weighs more than 3.5lbs (1.5 kgs). The problem with weight is related to the weight of the head itself. Since the head is so light (less than 2 lbs) it becomes unstable when too much weight is applied. This causes the head to be very subject to wind or any other vibration. In a light wind the camera and head will slightly shake making it nearly impossible to shoot without having the pictures blur. Shooting indoors with no wind would make it more likely to be able to shoot successfully. The head is more susceptible to the weight problem when you are using a long lens that causes you to push the camera a long way back on the upper horizontal arm in order to position the lens at its nodal point. This is because most of the weight is not centreed over the point of rotation but back on the upper arm. Some people have worked around the weight issues (to a degree) by holding a hand on the head to steady it when shooting.

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Prices and product specifications are subject to change without prior notice. The photographic product images on this web site may not exactly reflect the product you receive. Design revisions, updates, improvements and colour variations may exist.

Red Door VR Limited, UK - Panoramic Photo Equipment Specialists - pageloads from 111107: